Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Julia Lezhneva

Sometimes the programme just feels right: a dramatic cantata by Haydn, a “pantomime grotesque” by Bartók and Mahler's Fourth Symphony. Colour and contrasts galore from soloist, conductor and orchestra.

Handel's oratorio Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno receives its first-ever performance at Berlin's Philharmonie, proving that in the hands of Emmanuelle Haïm beauty can indeed defeat time. 

The 2002 production of Handel’s masterpiece is revived with a solid cast under the baton of Riccardo Minasi.

A visually stunning production with a fine cast to match. 

Julia Lezhneva partners with Richard Tognetti and the ACO to deliver a thrilling program of Baroque arias, in which her vocal agility and expressivity are on full display.

Handel's Tartar-Ottoman drama Tamerlano gets a majestically beautiful, if not wildly dramatic, outing at the Barbican with Il Pomo d'Oro. 

Maxim Emelyanychev conducted the period orchestra Il Pomo d’Oro in Tamerlano at the Concertgebouw, an enjoyable performance of Handel's darkest opera. 

Armonia Atenea and a thrillingly virtuosic cast, led by countertenor Max Emanuel Cenčić, bring Hasse’s Siroe to Amsterdam

Kasper Holten's virtuosic staging is revived by the Royal Opera with a cast of three exceptionally strong women, and accomplished performances by Christopher Maltman and Alex Esposito as the Don and his servant.

An exceptional mood of teamwork and virtuosity combine to ensure Fabio Biondi's reconstructed pasticcio of Vivaldi's lost L'oracolo in Messenia is an intense, disorientatingly beautiful evening of breathtaking musicianship. 

In her long-awaited major solo appearance in London, young Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva explored Handel's Italian-period works with the vibrant Baroque ensemble Il Giardino Armonico.

Under the baton of Diego Fasolis, French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva gave a most memorable and moving performance of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater at the Concertgebouw.

Let’s be clear: this was a performance of the highest order. From the first five notes of the overture, the sixteen-member orchestra Armonia Aténéa led by George Petrou ravished the audience of the Salle Pleyel with Handel’s full splendour.